Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer failed Tuesday in his attempt to gain unanimous consent on a bill that would permanently end the nearly $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" the Justice Department said it would use to compensate individuals who say they suffered from government “weaponization” and the misuse of the legal system for political purposes.
“Trump’s insurrectionist slush fund, his exempting himself from all tax liability and all his other grift proves that Trump hasn’t drained the swamp," Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a video posted on X on Tuesday. "He’s swimming in it."
His bill in the Senate sought to abolish the fund and nullify the order acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issued in May to dismiss Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over leaks of his 2019 and 2020 tax returns.
The deal would have created a $1.776 billion compensation fund for claimants, including individuals who participated in the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol in 2021, about 1,500 of whom were charged with crimes and later pardoned by Trump. More than 1,200 were convicted of offenses.
The settlement also shields Trump and his family from all past, present and future IRS tax audits of past finances.
Earlier this month, Blanche said the Justice Department would not proceed with the fund, following bipartisan outcry. But he has declined to put it in writing, prompting many Democratic lawmakers to cast doubt on whether it was permanently killed. The Trump family's IRS immunity remains in place, Blanche said.
“I just went to the Senate floor to force Republicans on the record,” Schumer wrote on X following the vote. “They sided with Trump’s insurrectionist army and his corrupt IRS tax exemption scheme instead of hardworking American families.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., objected to Schumer's request for unanimous consent.
"The president made clear that he'd not seek any compensation from the ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund,’ and for my own part, I've made it clear that I won't seek any compensation from the ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund,'" said Hagerty, who was one of eight Republican senators whose phone records were analyzed by the Justice Department during its investigation into Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
"Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, under oath, has said, and I quote, ‘We're not moving forward with the fund, period.’ Why is that not enough for my colleagues from across the aisle? Because they have a deeper and much darker motive. They want to erase the Biden Justice Department's unprecedented weaponization by abolishing every means of holding it accountable. I'm not going to stand for it.”
Trump also seemed to cast doubt on the fund’s ultimate fate when he told CNN earlier this month that he didn’t know whether it was truly dead or only on hold.
The president has described the fund as "important” and "a great idea" and the Jan. 6 rioters as having been “abused.”
Schumer said Hagerty's rejection was "unfortunate" because it would allow the fund to continue.
Last week, a federal judge in Virginia indefinitely blocked the fund, saying that “none of those statements” made by Blanche or Trump “have been made under the penalty of perjury.”
Two other lawsuits over the fund, filed by officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, are still active and pending.